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Miniatures Adventure => Pikes, Muskets and Flouncy Shirts => Topic started by: terrement on March 30, 2007, 03:28:53 AM
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If it is the 3 musketeers, where are their bloody muskets?
Retorical question I know, but leave it to the french to write about 4 heroes, but only include 3 in the title, and stress the weapon that they never seem to use.
Cheers,
JJ
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First, you have to take into account that Mr. Dumas is a typical 19th century novelist. All this "historical accuracy stuff" is a modern thing. Apart from that, the use of muskets would be limited to the battlefield, and is pretty much senseless in the "swashbuckling environment" (slow reload, unwieldy size, etc.).
And on the numbers, IIRC, D´Artagnan doesn´t become a musketeer until the end of the novel, and using a title like "The Three Musketeers and their Hopeful Aspirant" would be stupid even for... naah, I won´t go there. And using the 3Musk thing for the second book is continuity.
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D'artagnan wasn't a "mousquetaire" but a "Cadet de Gascogne" in the novel.
The corps was created by Louis XIII with giving guns at his Light Cavalery corp a musquet. It was an Elite corps. the musketeers used their muskets only on war.
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if i recall properly, the muskets were in use on the battlefield, with a sword as a backup close combat weapon, and a rapier used in civilian service or in the city for "personal protection" and to "protect one's honor".
as the major plot events in the novel are actions off the battlefield - though i recall something about ruined battlements - i suppose the muskets were left back at the barracks
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The siege of Toulon, I think. - Or was it La Rochelle..??
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La Rochelle. There is a bit of musket fire from our Musketeers (and their Gascon cadet) in that scene. Two whole volleys, I think.
There is some random gunplay during the quest for the Queen's diamonds, though it's mostly limited to lackeys and nameless assassins. But I think Dumas considered fencing to be that much more heroic and manly than just plugging someone with a gun.
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(http://www.cruisegazing.com/RPG_Motivational/gunspus.jpg)
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^^^^ :lol: ^^^^
But it is better to be dead and honorable than... Well, maybe it's better to be alive.
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Nice Feilidh Mór, there....
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The musketeers were a regiment of guard cavalry, so wouldn't use muskets very often even on the battlefield. There are quite a few drill books & training manuals from the 17th century, and most divide cavalry by type. Musketeer doesn't appear in any of the ones I have seen, but there are quite a few that have "harquebusiers". Since an arquebus is just an early form of musket, the terms are fairly synonimous.
I think Napoleon had a guard cavalry unit of carabiniers, and one of grenadiers, but I doubt that the grenadiers ever carried grenades.
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Why would carabiniers be carrying grenades?? :wink:
The 'modern' (1700's-1800's) grenadiers were 'just' elite soldiers.
Originally, Grenadiers were just soldiers carrying grenades to throw at the enemy. As broad-brimmed hats tend to get knocked off when the wearers are throwing something, grenadiers started wering caps - later evolving(?) into the excessive fur caps. Often they had a grenade-badge on the cap.
As grenadiers were often the first to close on the enemy or storm into breaches, they consequently gained the 'elite' status. And as a consequence of that, the grenade-badge became a sign of elite status, and also adopted by other elite units. As for example carabiniers.
Edit: And, yes, the Guard Musketeers were riding into battle, but I think they would dismount to use their muskets, just like early dragoons who were in fact mounted infantry. (I could be wrong on this, but in the 1600's, a units 'type name' could normally be trusted to describe the unit's role)
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I don't think the carabiniers were supposed to carry grenades, I was just meaning that it was a name rather than a designation, the same as the grenadiers a cheval were just a cavalry unit not mounted grenadiers.
Cruso's Militarie Instructions for the Cavalry has no doubt about harquebusiers fighting mounted - they were trained to load and fire from horseback. At the start of the 17th century, many cavalry were trained for the caracole (I think that's the term) rather than charging home with the sword. Unfortunately I have nothing in French about the role of the musketeers other than a couple of Funckens, and they regard them as cavalry.